The Migingo Saga: Kenya vs Uganda, why?!

what is so special kuhusu hicho kisiwa....????.......ni ushuru wa wavuvi wadogowadogo(maana hapo ndo hasa mgogoro ulipoanza kukua)......au kuna kingine..........nani kati ya kenya na uganda amekiendeleza hicho kisiwa hadi wafikie kutishiana KIJESHI...... I think hakuna kitu ambacho diplomacy ikitumika vizuri itashindikana.........MPs wa kenya waache kukurupuka(the other day wakati wa kikao kinachoendelea sa hivi cha bunge la kenya kuna mbunge mmama alisimama na kumtukana museveni hadi akalazimishwa na spika kufuta kauli yake....kweli hao ni mad Jaluos)


Mkuu nimesema those Kenyan MPs are mad.Si uliona hata kwenye Mediation,waziri mzima Martha karua alivyomtukana Koffi Annan

Diplomacy is Zero,halafu wanajidai wamesoma eti! Una-expect kitu gani from an ordinary Kenyan kama leaders wao ndio wana-behave like animals?
 
I MAKE LUV, NOT WAR.. Diplomacy is the best option, kama wangoja fireworks, you will have to wait for the diwali festivals my brother.

Ijumaa leo shekhe, hamna cha kuongea vibaya wala nini, nikutubu madhambi yangu na kumuomba Yarabi msamaha, na azidi kubariki nchi zote za Africa Mashariki.... ameen.


Unafiki mtupu,kwa vile leo ijumaaa basi unaaamua kwamba hutaongea vibaya lakini kuanzia kesho ni business as usual.

At least umeongea kuhusu diplomacy ambayo Mps wako wanaona ni vocabulary or anasa.Nenda ukagombee ubunge,just go and replace those ignorant Mps my friend.all da best!
 
Unafiki mtupu,kwa vile leo ijumaaa basi unaaamua kwamba hutaongea vibaya lakini kuanzia kesho ni business as usual.

At least umeongea kuhusu diplomacy ambayo Mps wako wanaona ni vocabulary or anasa.Nenda ukagombee ubunge,just go and replace those ignorant Mps my friend.all da best!

Nimeamua kuwa polite from now henceforth, It has nothin to do with today being an Ijumaa, I have noticed that I can take different angles on a topic without necessarily coming out as being biased, or rude. I never inended to come out as rude but that is the way am used to communicating, using cursewords and all, and I hope you will all understand and forgive me.

Regards,
SMATTA.
 
Nimeamua kuwa polite from now henceforth, It has nothin to do with today being an Ijumaa, I have noticed that I can take different angles on a topic without necessarily coming out as being biased, or rude. I never inended to come out as rude but that is the way am used to communicating, using cursewords and all, and I hope you will all understand and forgive me.

Regards,
SMATTA.


hahahaaaaaa,ngoja tuone how long that will last..
 
Kenya's Claim On Migingo A Big Joke - MP Ochieng Says

Tuesday, 28 April 2009 23:15 By Onghwens Kisangala

There is a bilateral dispute over the territorial positioning of Migingo Island. Kenya and Uganda are claiming the tiny rocky hill. Mr Patrick Ochieng, MP for Bukhooli South where the island currently falls, talked to The Independent's Onghwens Kisangala about how it all started

Ochieng.jpg

Patrick Ochieng

You are the area MP, what do you know about Migingo island?

This is a place where I have lived and grown up. Migingo is an old Luo name for an abandoned place. Bukooli South is part of Bugiri district, three quarters of which is Lake Victoria water. The main land is just a quarter of the whole district. In Lake Victoria, there are about 12 islands but about 9 are inhabited, Migingo inclusive. In Migingo area there are three islands, all called Migingo. But they have different shapes. There is a very interesting one called Pyramid.

Of the three Migingo islands, which one is where and owned by whom?

There is an island in the shape of a pyramid, another in the shape of a triangle and the other is a rock, all of them called Migingo. There is one where you see a prism (pyramid shape) if you look at it from any side. That's the Kenyan Migingo Island. According to both the constitutions of Uganda and Kenya, the boundary passes at the most-westerly part of the Pyramid Island and leaves the other two Migingos in Uganda. In this area, there are 11 other islands all in Uganda. The problem with the Migingo in dispute is that it is far from the rest of the other Ugandan islands and close to the Kenyan Migingo Pyramid Island. These islands were not inhabited until mid 1990s when different people started settling there.

How did Ugandans start living in these empty islands?

What took us to Migingo is our boys who used to go fishing there in-between Migingo and the other islands. Because of the methods of fishing- by hooks and gill-nets where you just throw them in water and come back the following day to check what has been caught- pirates used to come mainly from Tanzania to steal our boys' catch. But because Tanzania is very far from this area, they would not do that in one go. So they are the ones who first settled in this area as a sojourn for their piracy. When that practice intensified and Kenyans were fearing to settle on the island because they knew it was Ugandan, we decided to occupy it.

Wasn't it a big hurdle to displace the Tanzanians?

No… We first took there police officers. We mobilised Local Defence Units. The first LDUs we sent had instructions to stay there because they could not keep moving to and fro everyday. It is a long distance and it would be risky. When the public realised that the LDUs were there, they said let us also go there.

How come Ugandans were reluctant to settle in what was their own until LDUs went there?

This island was not really clearly visible because even as we speak today, the highest point above the water level is not more than 5 to 10 metres high and that is with the receding water level today. I imagine that at some point it was a small simple rock. That is probably why they did not use it as a reference point at mapping.

How did Kenyans who at first feared to settle on the island become the dominant settlers?

For Ugandans, the issue of living on water given the vast land we have here was not really a priority. We had enough land to live on. By the way more than half of the inland of Bugiri district is not 30 years old. I was born in 1973 and we were among the first people to settle in that area where we are today. You would walk for 30km to find the immediate neighbour. Tsetse flies disorganised settlements there in the mid 1940s.

The Google Earth map published by The Independent in March (Issue 50) showed Migingo in Uganda. But the latest map from the same Google Earth shows different things?

I don't know what authority gave Google this map, but the equipment that were used at that time are not the same being used today. To believe that this Google equipment might be the correct one may not be accurate. All these equipments have resolutions (allowable error). The best ones have 0.05% accuracy standards but this percent is a big resolution that you need to be very careful about.

If both Ugandans and Kenyans around these islands knew that Migingo is Ugandan, why the fighting?

I can assure you that today's inhabitants and all those who have been on these islands including the neighbours of Migori in Kenya know that this island is in Uganda. The hullabaloo is just by a few elite leaders in Nairobi inciting their ignorant citizens. Not even in Kisumu!

Why are Kenyans in Kibera uprooting railway slippers and threatening to block Ugandan goods from Mombasa?

They have no authority to do that. That will just be suicide on their side. They cannot condemn the whole Great Lakes Region just for their selfishness. We have set up a commission with engineers who will iron out this matter. Let me assume they are not talking about re-division of the islands. If it is just proving on which side the island lies, that is not a problem. Any other action is something the Kenyans will have to rethink. But the serious Kenyans will not allow such things to happen.

Why do you think Kenyan politicians seem not to have no confidence in this commission?

I don't think they don't have confidence as such. It is just a few who had made unfounded utterances that are finding it so hard to swallow their pride and tell the public that they are sorry.
Kenya?s claim on Migingo is a big joke? MP Ochieng
 
Jana nilisikiliza kwa makini kuhusu utata unaojitokeza kuhusu kisiwa cha Mijingo kilichopo katikati ya ziwa Victoria,BBC idhaa ya Kiswahili kwa sababu ipo Kenya ilienda moja kwa moja pale kisiwani ili kupata kujionea na kuhoji watu na mwishowe kule Uingereza.
Ninachokuuliza wanachogombea pale kisiwani ni nini ingawa kisiwa chenyewe ni kidogo kiko kama hekari 1
 
Monitor Reporter
Kampala

Uganda and Kenya continued to read from different scripts on the location of the disputed Island of Migingo in Lake Victoria.

The Kenyan survey team said yesterday they had finished their survey and concluded that the Island is Kenyan territory but their Ugandans counterparts who stopped the survey midway following disagreements on the survey insisted yesterday that the issue remains unresolved.

According to Denis Obbo, a Ugandan expert said preliminary findings at the time Ugandan quit the survey exercise much of the Island was on the Ugandan side of the territory. Mr Obbo said Uganda disagreed with the joint survey after their Kenyan counterparts objected to planting of demarcation polls as the survey continued.

“The Ugandan view is that if there are two Islands both surrounded by water then they are two and separate but the Kenyan team insist it is one Island and the smaller one is an outcrop of the other,” he said adding that the survey showed that only 510 metres (less than half a kilometre) inside Kenya.

The debate over the Island sparked off row nerves especially in the Kenyan Parliament with MPs accusing Uganda of pursuing an expansionist policy and grabbing Kenyan land.
 
hongera kwa ushindi, lakini mkwara mliupata kwa mzee m7. heshima mbele kwake nafikiri. hebu kaeni kwa amani sasa.
 
hongera kwa ushindi, lakini mkwara mliupata kwa mzee m7. heshima mbele kwake nafikiri. hebu kaeni kwa amani sasa.

Mkuu,

hebu soma taarifa kwa mara ya pili.Hii ishu bado haijaiva na kila mtu
anasema kivyake.Kenya wanasema kua ni yao na Ugandan surveyors
waliokuwepo wanasema ishu bado iko unresolved.

Mkwara wa M7 bado uko pale pale!
 
Kibaki says Migingo belongs to Kenya

Updated 2 hr(s) 38 min(s) ago


By John Oywa, Peter Atsiaya and Kepher Otieno


President Kibaki landed in the ODM stronghold of Nyanza to a tumultuous reception and announced the disputed Migingo Island belonged to Kenya.He said Kenyans should not worry over the island as it had been established that it was on the Kenyan side of the lake.

The remarks are expected to draw immediate reaction from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, whose forces have staked a claim on the island.

Speaking at Kendu Bay town in Karachuonyo constituency at the start of his three-day tour of Nyanza, President Kibaki received a standing ovation when he broke his silence on the island.

The island stirred a diplomatic row between the two countries after Uganda expelled Kenya policemen early this year and deployed its military.

President Kibaki's declaration that the island belongs to Kenya came only two weeks after a joint survey to help resolve the row collapsed when Ugandan experts boycotted the exercise and returned home.

A preliminary report complied by Kenyan surveyors and which was exclusively published in The Standard last week showed the island was 510m inside Kenya.

On Friday, the President was forced to comment on the island issue by the crowd that demanded he speaks on the issue.The President was about to end his speech after commissioning the construction of the Kendu-Homa Bay road when residents asked about Migingo.

Looking surprised, the President said: "Hii maneno ya kilele ni ya kitu gani?" (what is all the noise all about?" he asked.
He then gave the crowd the answer it wanted. "This island belongs to Kenya and every one knows this," he said, as applause drowned his voice.

He added: "Don't let us waste time on this matter. Migingo has belonged to Kenya from the beginning."

Prime Minister Raila Odinga who welcomed President Kibaki to Nyanza had told the crowd that Migingo was in Kenya.

Fishing activities

The President arrived at the Kisumu airport shortly after 9.30 am and flew again in two military helicopters to Kendu Bay where he inaugurate the Sh3.4 billion road project.

At Kendu By, he was met by dancing women and local politicians who sang and waved miniature flags to welcome him.

The President's Party of National Unity (PNU) was heavily represented at the function. Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, Pubic Health Minister Beth Mugo, Special Projects Minister Naomi Shaban and Sam Ongeri and several MPs accompanied him.

Almost all the ODM ministers were present when the President and his team landed.But the ecstatic crowd were largely disappointed after President Kibaki skirted weighty political issues.Appeals from wananchi to him to speak politics fell on deaf ears.

Instead, President Kibaki appealed to Nyanza residents to work hard and generate wealth.
He challenged the locals to use the good roads being built to improve their lives.

"I want to tell you that your destiny lies in your hands. It will be sad to remain poor when a good tarmacked road passes near your home. Ask yourself how the road can help you to prosper," he said.

Area MP James Rege had earlier appealed to the President to help remove the water hyacinth from the lake, saying the weed had paralysed fishing.Rege also called for the establishment of a second police station in the new district to address security issues.

The President later commissioned the Sondu Miriu hydropower project in Nyakach District where he was joined by more PNU leaders led by Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi.ODM ministers present included Dalmas Otieno, Otieno Kajwang', James Orengo, Anyang' Nyong'o and Fred Gumo.


The Standard | Online Edition :: Kibaki says Migingo belongs to Kenya
 
Now put some teeth in these words Mr President. Its not enough just to say
Migingo belongs to Kenya yet Ugandan paramilitary folks are having a field day
against Kenyan fishermen who occupy the island.
 
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